If I had a 2x12 cab laying around still (sold it to my brother), I'd get this to run in-between my two 15-watt tube amps as a wet-dry-wet setup. It's probably the first solid state head I've heard in a long time that I was impressed by.
@@DSilvergun Nah. He can't afford another one (well, he could, but would his wife let him? 🤣🤣), and it kind of goes with the '72 Fender Bandmaster I set him up with. So, I'll either buy or build one.
Fluff sux. It’s all the same review & insert product here. Bang for your buck Refined gentleman’s tone Same same blah blah blah. Unsubscribe early this year. 🤷♂️
@@PhillipMcKnight You’re welcome man. I like your take on gear. I’ve gotten too busy to watch every Friday, but I still appreciate what you do and how you do it.
Same here. Phil does a great job reviewing gear and always gives an honest interpretation of how well it performs as well as the "geeky stuff" info that many others don't include. Good or bad he tells it like it is.
That little amp sounds pretty good actually! I feel like small amps like this are starting to catch on with guitar players like short scale basses have been catching on with bass players. The other guitarist in my band used a Spark amp for a few gigs recently and just mic'ed it into our PA system and it actually sounded pretty good!
Awesome vid, Phil. I think this is the mini I was waiting for. Just placed my order from your Sweetwater link. Just had my 37th wedding anniversary so I guess I should thank my spouse for the anniversary gift hey don't know about before it gets here 😁
I’d like to see someone run this thing as a preamp into a tube power amp just for fits&shiggles you can’t take these too seriously. That said I have ordered this one, and I have the Bogner and Friedman. The Bogner sounds really good! I haven’t AB’d it and it’s clearly not a $5000 amp but it sound really cool and is very articulate meaning it roars but turn down the volume knob on your guitar and it cleans up well. Looking forward to this one
@@gtrman69777 well I haven’t gotten this one yet but of the others the Bogner is definitely my favorite. It doesn’t have as much gain as the others but it just sounds more full, you hear more definition. The Diezel is cool but very compressed, very “modern” not bad just different. The Friedman well it hard to explain it’s like it’s just flat there’s a scooped mid frequency that I just can’t get out of it. Sounds muted or something it’s hard to explain but I’ve had others tell me the same thing. Don’t know if that helps but that’s imho
@@moparbryan Yeah the Bogner seems to be the best from what I've heard. Of course that was before the Soldano came out. I'm just waiting to see a video where they get compared side by side.
Hey Phil, I enjoy your reviews. I would be cool if you plugged in a single coil guitar and showed us examples on both types of pickups. I think that would sound great through my AM PRO II strat 👍
I have the SLO mini 30. I have the Bogner mini 30 Ecstasy as well. As soon as my income tax is filed. I’m going to purchase the Soldano Astro 20 with the 2-12 vintage cab.
What volume levels did you try it at? EVERY demo has it at MV=6 or more. Which on a 30watt amp, even a class D ss, is fairly loud. How is it at low/bedroom/APT FRIENDLY volumes
It's solid-state, it'll sound just about the same at lower volume levels (depending on what speaker/cab you're playing it through). Probably everyone else just didn't want to adjust their audio interface gain (too much) so they turned it up till it matched the approx volume of their regular rigs.
I think this is a nice idea for someone who dreams of having a Soldano, but will never ever be able to afford a real one. I don’t think anyone will be recording anything too serious with it, or even gigging with it, but for just playing around at home, I think it sounds pretty good for a $250 solid state amp. Just wish they had included the clean channel, but beggars can’t be choosers.
But it is a real Soldano amp. I think companies are realizing that its possible to release lower priced good and not take a hit to your brand as long as it a great product.
"Not a real Soldano" its clearly real. Its right there, it makes sound, has Soldano on it. Seems real to me. Just because it doesnt use outdated tube tech, doesn't make it "not a real" one
All the boutique amp makers seem to have come out with these very close to each other. They seem to be more of a gimmick to sell to the guys/gals that don't want to spend 3k~5k on a real one. I wonder when the Dumble & Two-Rock will arrive ? Basically a pedal in a small 30watt solid state amp.
But if you can get a vanity fanservice product that also happens to be useful and a couple hundred bucks... what's the harm? Sure you're not going to want more than one or two, they are one-trick ponies. But that has its place.
I don’t think dumble and two rock belong to boutique amp distribution. That’s the common factor here. Besides cheaper stuff is virtually always the main seller for everyone. Also volume on the real thing is crazy. People be buying the main one just to have it. Almost no one need that much power
These mini amps are all made by the same company, Boutique. They make amps or pedals for all these brands, Freidman, Soldano, Bogner, Wampler, etc. All these mini heads are basically just a pedal that this company already makes and it's combined with a solid state power supply. I don't know if it's so much a gimmick because most of the pedals are well respected but they're definitely not for the same person that has a real SLO. Boutique doesn't make Two Rock or Dumble amps or pedals so it's unlikely that you'll see this type of mini version of those amps.
Been debating on buying a AMT Legend S1 or S2 preamp pedal (Soldano clone). The S1 is just the dirty channel, the S2 gets a clean and dirty channel. Wonder how it would compare to this.
I'm lost on the speaker out, it doesn't say whether it is a parallel or series out or stereo out. So do they say anywhere that ideally you would run one speaker out to an 8ohm load and the other 'out' to an additional 8ohm load, or each one could go to two separate 16 ohm loads, or 1 to an 8ohm load and the other to a 16 ohm load?
If you already have a loud solid state head with a good clean channel I recommend just getting some rad distortion pedals instead. I recommend the sonicake shark or golden brownie. Maybe a Donner metal head if you’re playing metal.
So, basically, it's a Chinese product developed by a Chinese factory and offered to a bunch of different brands as a novelty product. I would love to see a rogue amp expert open it up and explain to us what it really is.
I guess the thing is there is the micro dark or all the bantamps or those lil hughs an ketner things. It would be hard to make a choice without have at least a day with each
I'm a Warren Haynes fan. He has played his vintage LP. 335 and Strat's through Soldano's for a long time. I wondered how much that would clean up when I saw it. It sounds good without pedals 8) LOL --gary
Would you agree with George Lynch that this amp gets you 75% there compared to a real Soldano? George made that statement in an advertisement for this amp.
The use of those tiny heads escapes me. One has to carry a box, at least an 10" speaker makes sense here, anyway. Heads aren't super heavy. The differnce in carying weight from a normal head plus box to this thing isn't that much differnce. If I I don't want to carry much I use a Helix, Kemper etc. But this kinda combination doesn't make sense to me.
Hey, Phil have you compared this to the Friedman BE Mini? I looked but did not see any videos that you have done on the BE Mini. If you have used the Friedman how does the Soldano compare to BE Mini?
So I could connect this to my tube amp and use it as a second channel... The out from my tube amp effects loop into this then soldano effects of to my amp effects return. Will it be safe to use eccentric without a speaker?
Anyone know if this is a class-D amp? I would assume so since it's so light and able to put out 30 watts. Class-D's are very impressive these days -- I have two class-D amps and they are light but extremely powerful (my bass amp head is around 8 lb. and puts out 500 watts).
It sure is. In a Sweetwater video, they talk with Mike and he says it is. Very helpful video if you want a good overview of the amp. It's just their video covering this
I’ll stick with the Joyo Bantamps. Cheaper, sound amazing (valve preamp), headphone out, Bluetooth, fx loop and some have foot switchable (included) channels.
5:22 "... I'm going to show you how much it can clean up" LOL a Soldano... when did you start doing stand up comedy. It actually has a nice edge of breakup tone.
The thing that I don't like about it is that it's solid state. I would personally have to try it out myself to see if it would be useful to me. It would be awesome if it was tube driven like a blues Jr or something.
If I was to buy this what would be a good preferably cheap amp to run a wet/dry rig to go with it? I was thinking a jazz chorus 20 but I don’t really know
I own the jc 22 and it’s awesome on it’s own so I think it would probably work for your needs, I already use it as a wet/dry setup just using it on it’s own since it’s a stereo amplifier and has two inputs and considering how good that sounds I guess it will only sound better with another amp
Buy something that provides what is missing from this amp. I'd buy a darker voiced amp with emphasis on lows and low-mids since this amp is more focused on "trebly hair"
Fun as a practice amp or for small room gig's. I guess the loop would allow the use of a dirt pedal for sort of a 2nd channel. Not a fan of it being made in China.
If I had a 2x12 cab laying around still (sold it to my brother), I'd get this to run in-between my two 15-watt tube amps as a wet-dry-wet setup. It's probably the first solid state head I've heard in a long time that I was impressed by.
Buy the cab back from your bro man??
@@DSilvergun Nah. He can't afford another one (well, he could, but would his wife let him? 🤣🤣), and it kind of goes with the '72 Fender Bandmaster I set him up with. So, I'll either buy or build one.
YES!! I watched Leon Todd and Fluff's videos earlier and was hoping I'd see you do one. This is the mini head I've been waiting for
Fluff sux. It’s all the same review & insert product here.
Bang for your buck
Refined gentleman’s tone
Same same blah blah blah.
Unsubscribe early this year. 🤷♂️
I unsubscribed as well. No more Fluff.
I’ve seen several videos listed today for this, but this is the first one I’m watching
Thank you Ben.
@@PhillipMcKnight You’re welcome man. I like your take on gear. I’ve gotten too busy to watch every Friday, but I still appreciate what you do and how you do it.
Same here. Phil does a great job reviewing gear and always gives an honest interpretation of how well it performs as well as the "geeky stuff" info that many others don't include. Good or bad he tells it like it is.
That little amp sounds pretty good actually! I feel like small amps like this are starting to catch on with guitar players like short scale basses have been catching on with bass players. The other guitarist in my band used a Spark amp for a few gigs recently and just mic'ed it into our PA system and it actually sounded pretty good!
Thanks phil. Good call on using that Kiesel. I love the combo of that paint job and body shape and it sounds bad ass
Yes! I've been waiting. I have the other three, absolutely collecting them all.
They could sell thousands more If they included direct out with IRs, even if for 100 bucks more.
I’ve got an original Jet City, it sounds pretty Soldano-ish. I’m happy
Finally! I've been waiting on this one!
Awesome vid, Phil. I think this is the mini I was waiting for. Just placed my order from your Sweetwater link. Just had my 37th wedding anniversary so I guess I should thank my spouse for the anniversary gift hey don't know about before it gets here 😁
3:58 Man Phil playing story of the year!!!!
I’d like to see someone run this thing as a preamp into a tube power amp just for fits&shiggles you can’t take these too seriously. That said I have ordered this one, and I have the Bogner and Friedman. The Bogner sounds really good! I haven’t AB’d it and it’s clearly not a $5000 amp but it sound really cool and is very articulate meaning it roars but turn down the volume knob on your guitar and it cleans up well. Looking forward to this one
I would love to hear your opinion between this and the Bogner and Friedman. I'm trying to decide which one to get.
@@gtrman69777 well I haven’t gotten this one yet but of the others the Bogner is definitely my favorite. It doesn’t have as much gain as the others but it just sounds more full, you hear more definition. The Diezel is cool but very compressed, very “modern” not bad just different. The Friedman well it hard to explain it’s like it’s just flat there’s a scooped mid frequency that I just can’t get out of it. Sounds muted or something it’s hard to explain but I’ve had others tell me the same thing. Don’t know if that helps but that’s imho
@@moparbryan Yeah the Bogner seems to be the best from what I've heard. Of course that was before the Soldano came out. I'm just waiting to see a video where they get compared side by side.
Hey Phil, I enjoy your reviews.
I would be cool if you plugged in a single coil guitar and showed us examples on both types of pickups.
I think that would sound great through my AM PRO II strat 👍
Thanks for the in-depth and fun review! I just ordered one.
Me, too.
thanks, Phil! Fun review. And that guitar is f@cking bonkers. Love it!
These mini amps seem to be based on pedals of the manufacturers, amp in a box style, but in a bigger box the size of a head
I just bought it. Great video Phil. I wish I could have gotten it in purple
Forget Analogman, the SLO 100 is the king of tone.
I have the SLO mini 30. I have the Bogner mini 30 Ecstasy as well. As soon as my income tax is filed. I’m going to purchase the Soldano Astro 20 with the 2-12 vintage cab.
That guitar is sick as hell
Awesome review, as always! These are so cool.
Awesome review and very good playing Phil ❤️
Well if Eddie likes it, I'm getting one!!!
So for $500 USD you can have a clean setup and an insane gain setup and ab switch them. Very cool stuff!
Loving the content lately
Please set up a wet dry wet rig with three different mini heads. Run some good delay and reverb pedals into them. Then Have FUN.
What volume levels did you try it at? EVERY demo has it at MV=6 or more. Which on a 30watt amp, even a class D ss, is fairly loud. How is it at low/bedroom/APT FRIENDLY volumes
It's solid-state, it'll sound just about the same at lower volume levels (depending on what speaker/cab you're playing it through). Probably everyone else just didn't want to adjust their audio interface gain (too much) so they turned it up till it matched the approx volume of their regular rigs.
This makes me happy 😁
These mini solids rock.
I think this is a nice idea for someone who dreams of having a Soldano, but will never ever be able to afford a real one. I don’t think anyone will be recording anything too serious with it, or even gigging with it, but for just playing around at home, I think it sounds pretty good for a $250 solid state amp. Just wish they had included the clean channel, but beggars can’t be choosers.
But it is a real Soldano amp. I think companies are realizing that its possible to release lower priced good and not take a hit to your brand as long as it a great product.
@@DimitriLeeBX To
"Not a real Soldano" its clearly real. Its right there, it makes sound, has Soldano on it. Seems real to me. Just because it doesnt use outdated tube tech, doesn't make it "not a real" one
Sounds great, love this baby heads format.
Sounds good. I was surprised that it ran as clean as it did. Rock on.👍👍✌️
PURPLE CRACKLE KIESEL SIGHTING!!! Woo!
I was disappointed, for the $$ you can get the THR or Spark Grid... both way better and much more inspiring.
Sounds really good!
for the price a footswitch input would be really nice.
Footswitch for what? There is nothing to switch.
All the boutique amp makers seem to have come out with these very close to each other. They seem to be more of a gimmick to sell to the guys/gals that don't want to spend 3k~5k on a real one. I wonder when the Dumble & Two-Rock will arrive ? Basically a pedal in a small 30watt solid state amp.
But if you can get a vanity fanservice product that also happens to be useful and a couple hundred bucks... what's the harm? Sure you're not going to want more than one or two, they are one-trick ponies. But that has its place.
I don’t think dumble and two rock belong to boutique amp distribution. That’s the common factor here. Besides cheaper stuff is virtually always the main seller for everyone. Also volume on the real thing is crazy. People be buying the main one just to have it. Almost no one need that much power
@@riverstone5994 I agree 100%. I have a Mig-50 and it can make your ears bleed turned up past 6. I can't imagine the 100 watt SLO.
These mini amps are all made by the same company, Boutique. They make amps or pedals for all these brands, Freidman, Soldano, Bogner, Wampler, etc. All these mini heads are basically just a pedal that this company already makes and it's combined with a solid state power supply. I don't know if it's so much a gimmick because most of the pedals are well respected but they're definitely not for the same person that has a real SLO. Boutique doesn't make Two Rock or Dumble amps or pedals so it's unlikely that you'll see this type of mini version of those amps.
Been debating on buying a AMT Legend S1 or S2 preamp pedal (Soldano clone). The S1 is just the dirty channel, the S2 gets a clean and dirty channel. Wonder how it would compare to this.
I had the S1, sounded awesome
I'm lost on the speaker out, it doesn't say
whether it is a parallel or series out or
stereo out.
So do they say anywhere that
ideally you would run one speaker out
to an 8ohm load and the other 'out' to an additional
8ohm load, or each one could go to two
separate 16 ohm loads, or 1 to an 8ohm load
and the other to a 16 ohm load?
Everything's better that comes with a nice box!
Finally! A Soldano that I can afford.
If you already have a loud solid state head with a good clean channel I recommend just getting some rad distortion pedals instead. I recommend the sonicake shark or golden brownie. Maybe a Donner metal head if you’re playing metal.
I've recetnly shifted to a fully digital rig with an HX Stomp. About time I get myself a really awesome amp head for the kicks
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking of this. I moved to fractal and this is just too cool and perfectly priced
So, basically, it's a Chinese product developed by a Chinese factory and offered to a bunch of different brands as a novelty product. I would love to see a rogue amp expert open it up and explain to us what it really is.
already got one. but wanted to see your take on it. Thanks
A small solid state head for $250. Wow, what a find.
Ordered mine today
The EVH Funko Pop came out in early 2022. Need one to go with my EVH Frankenstein Guitar.
Sound pretty dang good
I guess the thing is there is the micro dark or all the bantamps or those lil hughs an ketner things. It would be hard to make a choice without have at least a day with each
I'm a Warren Haynes fan. He has played his vintage LP. 335 and Strat's through Soldano's for a long time. I wondered how much that would clean up when I saw it. It sounds good without pedals 8) LOL --gary
Pete Thorn posted a video on this amp right under yours. 🙂
for the price of a pedal, sounds great
Would you agree with George Lynch that this amp gets you 75% there compared to a real Soldano? George made that statement in an advertisement for this amp.
Nice work 🤘
Ordered one today
Carmina Burana! Soldano makes me think of Warren Haynes and Mick Mars.
These are more like pedals in an amp 🤔👍. If you can have pedals that mimic amps, why not amps that mimic pedals 🤷♂️
can anyone compare this to the hottone captain sunset which is also a soldano solid state clone?
Actually sounds really good on my phone
When are you releasing your Sire S7 video?
Just curious what kind of 112 cabinet you are running
Nice review, sounds cool 😎
What 1x12 Cabinet and speaker are you using?
Thanks!!
The use of those tiny heads escapes me. One has to carry a box, at least an 10" speaker makes sense here, anyway. Heads aren't super heavy. The differnce in carying weight from a normal head plus box to this thing isn't that much differnce. If I I don't want to carry much I use a Helix, Kemper etc. But this kinda combination doesn't make sense to me.
Nice and compact. Cool 👍🤘
Hey, Phil have you compared this to the Friedman BE Mini? I looked but did not see any videos that you have done on the BE Mini. If you have used the Friedman how does the Soldano compare to BE Mini?
SWEET!
Are most of these mini heads coming out of the same factory?
Why they don´t release a 100watt version of this?
Collectible? So what you’re saying is there certain Funko pop of Famous amplifiers? Or
was that some Ra you were doing?
Hey, I have a question, can I run this amp through a BOSS Katana 100?
Why does it look so much like the Friedman BE Mini 30?
So, how do you like this amp compared to the Bogner and Friedman?
Looks like a really fun toy, probably the best looking one of the bunch
Not a toy. It's a small amp for real men.
@@DSilvergun men have toys too
So I could connect this to my tube amp and use it as a second channel...
The out from my tube amp effects loop into this then soldano effects of to my amp effects return. Will it be safe to use eccentric without a speaker?
Yes
I'd get the Mesa Rectifier if they'd make one.
Anyone know if this is a class-D amp? I would assume so since it's so light and able to put out 30 watts. Class-D's are very impressive these days -- I have two class-D amps and they are light but extremely powerful (my bass amp head is around 8 lb. and puts out 500 watts).
It sure is. In a Sweetwater video, they talk with Mike and he says it is. Very helpful video if you want a good overview of the amp. It's just their video covering this
Do you think it sounds better than a Katana 50?
NOICE 🤘🏻😎🎸
I’ll stick with the Joyo Bantamps. Cheaper, sound amazing (valve preamp), headphone out, Bluetooth, fx loop and some have foot switchable (included) channels.
Finally a Soldano I can afford
These are great novelty heads for the money but if I had to gig Id save up for a 5150 Iconic on a budget.
Nice ✌🏼❤🤘🏼
Too Funny !! If he held another Soldano mini in his other hand, then he could make a new Transformer movie !!! LOL
5:22 "... I'm going to show you how much it can clean up" LOL a Soldano... when did you start doing stand up comedy. It actually has a nice edge of breakup tone.
Real SLOs sound *fantastic* set clean/edge of breakup. That was actually the section of the demo I was hoping he would do.
not foot switchable?
No, they only have 1 channel
hm if only someone took a jcm 800 pedal and made it into a mini head...
5:00 escape the fate??
Yeah sounds like something thatd be off their first record
Cool
Is this amp true or false bypass? Asking for a friend
Considering you can buy an MG30DFX for a couple of hundred dollars with a speaker cabinet, this seems like a gimmick
Yet that marshall sounds nothing like this gimmick, and doesn't even sound any good, which one is the gimmick after all?
I wish these had headphone jack....
The thing that I don't like about it is that it's solid state. I would personally have to try it out myself to see if it would be useful to me. It would be awesome if it was tube driven like a blues Jr or something.
If I was to buy this what would be a good preferably cheap amp to run a wet/dry rig to go with it? I was thinking a jazz chorus 20 but I don’t really know
I own the jc 22 and it’s awesome on it’s own so I think it would probably work for your needs, I already use it as a wet/dry setup just using it on it’s own since it’s a stereo amplifier and has two inputs and considering how good that sounds I guess it will only sound better with another amp
Buy something that provides what is missing from this amp. I'd buy a darker voiced amp with emphasis on lows and low-mids since this amp is more focused on "trebly hair"
think im roolin with synergy,, but its very cool amp ; ]
Vox lil’ night train or Black
Heart little giant 5. FWIW.
Fun as a practice amp or for small room gig's. I guess the loop would allow the use of a dirt pedal for sort of a 2nd channel.
Not a fan of it being made in China.
Chinese things are just as good. The made in China is a thing of the pass that boomers don’t like.
Need a Bedrock version lol . Oh who remembers those ? There's one a ....
"switches are subtle" ==> "switches don't do sh1t" .
I wish they would have just gone full "pedalboard amp" with it instead.